James Dean: Final pictures of star taken hours before death in Porsche Spyder to be sold at auction | Daily Mail Online comments This is the poignant last official picture of movie legend James Dean taken on the day of his fatal car crash. Dean is pictured looking relaxed and happy in the driver's seat of his beloved Porsche 550 Spyder with mechanic Rolf Wutherich sitting alongside him on a sunny California morning. The photograph was taken on September 30, 1955, by Sanford Roth who was following Dean to do a photo feature on a race he was attending. The photograph will be auctioned by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills this week. Poignant: This is the last official photograph of movie legend James Dean snapped on the morning of his fatal car crash on 30th Sept 1955. Dean is in the driving seat with mechanic Rolf Wutherich alongside him Roth took the picture just before the party headed out of Los Angeles to the road races at Salinas. The 24-year-old star crashed his car on Route 466 near Pasa Robles later on the same day. RELATED ARTICLES Share Dean was killed in the crash and his friend Wutherich was seriously injured.

Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions, said: 'James Dean is quite the icon today yet he was only in Hollywood for five years. Icon: Dean made just three films before he died in a head-on car crash at the age of just 24 'He made three movies and two of those came out after his death. It's amazing that in 2013 he is still such a memorable icon. 'This is a candid photo and was taken by the photographer from Dean's station wagon in front. Dean was on his way to a car race and it looks like they were all having fun. 'It is a forever powerful and compelling image, with Dean clasping his mechanic's hand in a gesture of anticipation and triumph. As it is one of the last photos ever taken of him, it is most poignant.' Photographer Roth first met Dean on the set of the 1956 film Giant and the pair became friends. Roth took some iconic pictures of Dean both on the set of that film and afterwards in Los Angeles. Dean was the first ever actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, for his role in East Of Eden in 1955.

He is also the only actor to receive two posthumous Academy Award acting nominations, as he had a second one the following year for Giant. The photograph, which is being auctioned alongside other images of Dean taken by Roth, is set to fetch £500 when it goes for sale on April 5. James Dean is buried in Fairmount, Indiana, near his uncle's farm where he grew up. In 1977, a Dean memorial was erected in Cholame, California. The sculpture was made of stainless steel around a 'tree of heaven' growing in front of the former Cholame post office building.

Image: Some claim this photo of Dean at a petrol station with his Porsche is the last one taken of him before his death Debated: This image of the back of Dean's car as he was driving is also claimed by some to be the last picture taken of him before he died Tragedy: The wreck of Dean's car is removed from the scene of the crash in which the star was killed The sculpture features a handwritten description by Dean's friend William Bast of one of Dean's favorite lines from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince: 'What is essential is invisible to the eye.' Dean was born in 1931,in Marion, Indiana. His father had left farming to become a dental technician, and Dean and his James family then moved to Santa Monica, California. His mother, to who he was close, died of cancer when Dean was just nine years old. Doomed: The actor gives the thumbs-up sign from the car while parked on Vine Street in Hollywood.

Dean, who had taken up racing the year before, owned the car only nine days when he lost his life in the crash Silver screen: Dean shot to fame for his starring role in the film Rebel Without A Cause (1955) alongside Sal Mineo (left) and Natalie Wood Loss: The actor died before two of the three films he starred in were released. He is seen here in one of those films, 'East Of Eden' alongside Lois Smith He was sent by his father to live with his aunt and uncle on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in a Quaker background. His acting career took of after he graduated from high school and moved back to Los Angeles to live with his father. While studying at UCLA, he was picked to play Malcolm in Macbeth. He dropped out of the university in January 1951, to pursue an acting career full-time. Work: Another of Dean's films, 'Giant' was released in 1956 (seen here).

Dean started acting after joining UCLA Resting place: Dean was buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, close to the farm where he grew up with his aunt and uncle James Dean dies in car accident - Sep 30, 1955 - HISTORY.com James Dean dies in car accident Share this: James Dean dies in car accident Author James Dean dies in car accident URL Publisher A+E Networks At 5:45 PM on this day in 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was dazed but mostly uninjured; Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wütherich was badly injured but survived. Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom–and the crash made him a legend.

James Dean loved racing cars, and in fact he and his brand-new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco. Witnesses maintained that Dean hadn’t been speeding at the time of the accident–in fact, Turnupseed had made a left turn right into the Spyder’s path–but some people point out that he must have been driving awfully fast: He’d gotten a speeding ticket in Bakersfield, 150 miles from the crash site, at 3:30 p.m. and then had stopped at a diner for a Coke, which meant that he’d covered quite a distance in a relatively short period of time. Still, the gathering twilight and the glare from the setting sun would have made it impossible for Turnupseed to see the Porsche coming no matter how fast it was going. Rumor has it that Dean’s car, which he’d nicknamed the Little Bastard, was cursed. After the accident, the car rolled off the back of a truck and crushed the legs of a mechanic standing nearby.

Later, after a used-car dealer sold its parts to buyers all over the country, the strange incidents multiplied: The car’s engine, transmission and tires were all transplanted into cars that were subsequently involved in deadly crashes, and a truck carrying the Spyder’s chassis to a highway-safety exhibition skidded off the road, killing its driver. The remains of the car vanished from the scene of that accident and haven’t been seen since. Wütherich, whose feelings of guilt after the car accident never abated, tried to commit suicide twice during the 1960s–and in 1967, he stabbed his wife 14 times with a kitchen knife in a failed murder/suicide–and he died in a drunk-driving accident in 1981. Turnupseed died of lung cancer in 1981. Related Videos James Dean's legend lives on – but what about the films? James Dean's legend lives on – but what about the films? James Dean, whose performances 'were a milestone in cinema' Patrick Smith 30 September 2015 • 8:02am James Dean is one of the most widely recognisable movie stars of all time.

But, on the 60th anniversary of his death, Patrick Smith asks: how many of his films have you seen? For as long as I can remember, a portrait of James Dean has adorned my parents' dining room wall. You know the one: he's strolling through Times Square in the rain, his shoulders hunched, cigarette dangling from his lip. Taken a year before Dean smashed his Porsche Spyder headlong into another car on September 30, 1955, it continues to embody the image of an angst-ridden outsider. Indeed, even to this day, Dean remains one of cinema's favourite poster boys. With his brooding, boyish good looks, he dazzled adolescent audiences, projecting the same sensitive masculinity pioneered on screen by Marlon Brando. Dean remains one of cinema's favourite poster boys Credit: HANDOUT When Dean died at the age of 24, he'd filmed just three motion pictures, and only one of those had made it into cinemas: East of Eden, Elia Kazan's adaptation of John Steinbeck's bestselling novel.

Giant, George Stevens's Texas epic starring Elizabeth Taylor, was yet to be completed, while Rebel Without a Cause, which Dean had wrapped several months earlier, was scheduled for release on November 1. Dean in 'Rebel Without a Cause' Credit: REX/SNAP Though he was still widely unknown to the public, news of his death reverberated across America, dominating the front pages. Teenagers, fascinated by the tragedy, rushed to see Rebel Without a Cause, struggling to grasp how someone so young and so talented was no longer alive. Of all his films, it's this indelible study of teenage angst that has aged the best. Directed by the great Nicholas Ray, it's a tense, explosive tale following a day in the life of three young misfits, played by Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. As the new kid in town Jim Stark, Dean is mesmeric, by turns mordant, bewildered and desperate to belong. Not for nothing did Dean's Stark, dressed in a red windbreaker, white T-shirt and blue jeans, represent the original all-American rebel. Sadly, neither East of Eden nor Giant has fared nearly as well over time.

In the latter, Dean's convincing stab at playing a middle-aged rancher who strikes it rich with oil doesn't make up for the film's bloated 201-minute running time. "Dean is instantly and universally recognised as a special genius" Credit: HANDOUT East of Eden, meanwhile, is slightly more palatable. A rich biblical allegory set in 1917, it casts Dean in the role of a wayward son trying to win his overbearing father's affection. The performance was lauded at the time and nominated for an Oscar (as was his turn in Giant). But these days it feels histrionic; he fidgets, he giggles, he pouts, he skips, he rolls his eyes – much like Brando did when he first made his name. That's not to say these performances weren't innovative; they were. Along with fellow Method actors Brando and Montgomery Clift, Dean defied convention, bringing an instinctive sensibility to his roles. His portrayals of troubled teenagers captured the anxieties of growing up in the Fifties; it wasn't just his looks that made him a pin-up.

"Dean is instantly and universally recognised as a special genius," says Martin Sheen, during his narration of the 2005 documentary James Dean: Forever Young. "And there has hardly been an actor since that hasn't been influenced and inspired by his work." Considering that Dean's career only spanned 18 months, it's remarkable that he still enjoys such legendary status, nearly 60 years after his death, remaining one of cinema's most enigmatic stars. His public persona hid private troubles: he was bisexual, moody, attention-seeking and riddled with self-pity. And yet he is forever frozen in time as the ludicrously photogenic young actor with the big quiff and upturned collar. He's also Hollywood's darkest cautionary tale, the man who tragically took the "live fast, die young" credo literally. Dean as Jett Rink in 'Giant' That said, for all the many references to James Dean in popular culture (poems, songs, plays), very few people under the age of 35 have actually seen his movies.

A quick straw poll of friends and colleagues revealed that only a couple of them had watched Rebel Without a Cause, while one thought she may have sat through East of Eden "a long time ago". Giant didn't even register. Of course acting has evolved. Nowadays we expect nuance and naturalism; we're no longer happy with melodramatic eye-rolling. Nevertheless, Dean's performances, overblown though they may be, were a milestone in cinema. It's time, then, for a new generation to watch him in action – and see just how that powerful image was made. The Death of James Dean in a Car Accident The Death of James Dean in a Car Accident by Frank Wilkins A Cause Without a Rebel - Just How Did James Dean Die? James Dean was arguably one of the freshest young faces on the Hollywood scene in the 1950s. But because he died at such a young age, he was probably known more for the films he didn't make, than the ones he did. With just a scant three movies filmed and only one released before his death, it's quite impressive that his legacy still burns so brightly. In fact James Dean's popularity remains higher in death than it did during his short life.

Early Life James Byron Dean was raised on a farm in Marion, Indiana on February 8, 1931 to Winton and Mildred Dean. Winton would eventually leave the farming life behind for a career as a dental technician and move his family to Santa Monica, California. Dean would enroll in Brentwood Public School. Mildred would die when James was only nine years old, prompting his father to send James to live with his Aunt Ortense Winslow in Fairmount, Indiana where James would, ironically, receive a Quaker upbringing. James would eventually enroll at Fairmount High School (Class of '49) where his drama teacher encouraged him to enter a public speaking contest. He would not only win the contest, but would eventually take the state championship in public speaking. James would graduate from Fairmount High School in 1949 and move back to California with his father and stepmother. Hollywood Calls Encouraged to pursue a career in law, the young Dean would enroll at Santa Monica City College before eventually transferring to UCLA and changing his major to drama. His decision to pursue acting over law would anger his father and lead to a spat, resulting in Dean being thrown out of his father's house.

While struggling as an NBC page, Dean's roommate, actor William Bast, would eventually get Dean a spot as an extra in a Coca-Cola television commercial followed by a brief spate as a stunt tester in the Television game show Beat the Clock. But Dean would eventually drop out of college and was forced to take small jobs to pay his bills. Heeding the advice of actor James Whitmore, Dean would move to New York City in the fall of 1951 to not only "find himself" but to pursue a career in stage acting. Dean would audition for and receive a role in Broadway's See the Jaguar, marking his Broadway debut. But the show was a flop. Before receiving his next role in Broadway's The Immoralist, Dean would do a great deal of television work including Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, General Electric Theater and others. The Opportunity of a Lifetime While working in New York, Dean would receive the opportunity of a lifetime. Director Elia Kazan would hire him for East of Eden (1955) in which he would play Cal Trask, a role that would ring true with teenage moviegoers throughout the country, cementing James Dean as a new Hollywood hero.

While shooting his Academy award nominated role in East of Eden, Dean would fall in love with the beautiful Italian import Pier Angeli, then a rising young star in the MGM studio system. The two mixed like oil and water however, forcing Angeli to break off the relationship before she announced her marriage to singer Vic Damone. This rejection would only strengthen Dean's resolve, sinking him headfirst into his acting career. James Dean would film two more movies, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, the first of which would propel him into the stratosphere as not only a major Hollywood actor, but also as a new spokesperson for the entire teen generation. James Dean was now more popular than Marlon Brando. Little Bastard Always the rebel, Dean's real life hobbies would reflect his daredevil on-screen enthusiasm. In addition to collecting guns and riding motorcycles, Dean loved his car, a silver Porsche 550 Spyder that he nicknamed "Little Bastard." But unfortunately, "Little Bastard" would turn on him on a cool September evening. In the early afternoon hours of September 30, 1955, Dean would head out with Porsche factory mechanic, Rolph Weutherich to an auto rally in Salinas, California.

Dean and the "Little Bastard" were pulled over for speeding by a Bakersfield police officer, who issued a citation for doing 65 in a 55 and cautioned Dean to slow down and be careful. Dean and Rolph would continue their journey to the Salinas rally and headed out on Highway 466 towards Cholame, California, unaware of their fate that lie before them. Meanwhile, near Paso Robles, 23 year-old Cal Poly student, Donald Turnupseed was heading home in his 1950 Ford Tutor. He was making a left turn at the intersection of Highways 41 onto State Route 466 (later State Route 46) unaware of the Spyder approaching from the opposite direction. At the last moment, Turnupseed pulled back to the right to get out of the path of the approaching Dean. James Dean yelled to his friend seated next to him "He's Got to See Us." (Some sources cite the quote as, "That guy's gotta stop...

He'll see us.") "Little Bastard" plowed into the broad side (read this report and this one from our lovely Morbidly Hollywood readers, that contain further information about the details of how the two cars impacted one another) of the Ford Tutor. "Little Bastard" and its occupants would come to rest near a telephone pole fifteen feet off the road. Contrary to the reports that have since stated Dean's speed in excess of 80 miles per hour, California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson (one of the first law enforcement officers on the scene) said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed at the time of the accident was more like 55 mph." Rolf, thrown from the car, survived with a broken leg and serious head injuries, but he would survive. Donald Turnupseed, escaped the accident with only a gashed forehead and bruised nose. But James Dean, America's rebel without a cause, would suffer fatal injuries, including a near decapitation. His body would be taken via ambulance to Paso Robles War memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by Deputy Coroner Paul E. Werrick.

The Coroner's report would list Dean's death as broken neck, multiple fractures of upper and lower jaw, multiple fractures of left and right arm and other internal injuries caused by a 2 car collision. James Dean was but 24 years old. Kuehl's Funeral Home in Paso Robles, California would prepare the badly mangled body for its return back home to Indiana. His funeral would take place at the Fairmount Friends Church on October 8, 1955. James Dean is buried in Fairmount's Park Cemetery where his tombstone has been stolen 3 times, the last in July of 1998. Ironically, Rolf Weutherich would be killed in a car accident in 1981, after surviving several failed suicide attempts. Donald Turnupseed would die in 1995 of lung cancer.

UPDATE: Morbidly Hollywood friend Marsha Boyer provides the following update in the Death of James Dean discussion forum : "i found a couple of errors on the article concerning james deans accident, first it was discovered that he had not been speeding at the time of the accident , donald turnupseed was on his way home to tulare and was on hwy466 turning onto hwy 41 the two cars hit drivers side to drivers side, dean was not flown to passo robles war memorial hospital he was taken by ambulance the doctor who attended dean was dr. bossert who was our family doctor. thank you marsha b." Have additional information, want to know what others are saying, or don't agree with something we said? Read or post comments about James Dean on the The ambulance that transported Dean's body from the scene of the accident. The James Dean memorial near the scene of the crash in Paso Robles, California. The intersection of Highways 41 and State Route 466 (later changed to State Route 46) as it appears today. The small road sign to the right says "James Dean Memorial Junction. There is also a small plaque to the side of the road commemorating the site.

(would love to have a pic of it... hint, hint)* *Thanks to Morbidly Hollywood friend Bert D. we have some great pics of the commemorative plaque The wrecked Spyder after the accident. James Dean's body being lifted into the rear of an ambulance at the scene of the crash. Donald Turnupseed "X" marks the intersection of Highways 466 and 41 just outside Paso Robles. Hwy 466 has since been renamed 46. San Francisco is to the north and Los Angeles is to the south. A hand-written letter left behind by Dean as instructions for feeding his cat while he is away at the car rally at Salinas, California. 1 teaspoon white Karo Don't feed him meat or formula cold 1 drop vitamin solution per day Take Marcus to Dr. Cooper on Melrose for shots next week. Author's note: That's one spoiled cat! The last official photo taken of James Dean on the morning of his fatal car crash. Here's a pretty cool video recreation of James Dean's car crash near Cholame, California. Also includes footage near the site, interviews from those involved and an actual recreation of the crash.

Here's another video that refutes the long-held claim that James Dean was driving at the time of the crash. Interview with the last living witness to rolJames Dean's fatal car crash claims he saw mechanic Rolf driving. The intersection of Vine and Fountain streets, where the Hollywood Ranch Market used to sit. Dean reportedly ate a doughnut from here on the morning he died. Many erroneous reports have Dean eating at the Farmer's Market (below) on Fairfax. A key scene (see inset) of Rebel Without a Cause was filmed on the balcony of the observatory. Notice how the background landscape has changed since 1955. A plaque outside the Griffith Park Observatory commemorates the filming of Rebel Without a Cause. Some James Dean External Links: The James Dean Story: Introduction By Ron Martinetti The legend grew. James Dean was little more than a boy when he died, killed at twenty-four on the highway near Paso Robles, California, on September 30, 1955, while on his way to a sports car meet. At the time of his death, Dean had completed three movies, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, only the first of which had been released.

Dean was already an actor of promise, and his death was front-page news. It was the Eisenhower-Ben Gurion era--a time of peace and prosperity-when young people were expected to respect their elders and obey the rules. But even during his short life, Dean was widely known as a nonconformist-a rebel who had taken Hollywood by storm and who did as he pleased. For young people coming of age, Dean was someone they could easily identify with: an outsider, a loner--he was the antithesis of everything a well-behaved youth was supposed to be. His screen portrayals symbolized the rebelliousness of adolescence. In public he was often rude, even surly. A fan magazine quoted him as saying, "I wouldn't like me, if I had to be around me." He had been known to fight with directors and storm off the set. "Jimmy knew what young people were up against," an admirer once said. "He understood." Later, someone else referred to him as "the first student activist." From the day of his death, it seemed that young people would not let Dean die. A special fan mail agency had to deal with the deluge of mail that poured into the studio.

Many of the letters were addressed to the dead star. A record, His Name Was Dean, put out on a small label, sold twenty-five thousand copies in a single week. Mattson's, a Hollywood clothing shop, received hundreds of orders for red jackets identical to the one Dean had worn in Rebel Without a Cause, and Griffith Park, where scenes from the movie were shot, became almost overnight a tourist attraction. Admirers lined up inside the Observatory, hoping to sit in the same seat Dean had used in the film. "It's like Valentino," a reporter told Henry Ginsberg, the coproducer of Giant, Dean's last movie, referring to the craze that had swept the nation after the Italian actor's death in the 1920s. Ginsberg disagreed, "It's bigger than Valentino." Some fans refused to believe that Dean was really dead. Walter Winchell printed in his column the rumor that Dean was disfigured but still alive. Other stories insisted that it had been a hitchhiker and not Dean who had been killed and that the actor was in hiding while learning to operate his artificial limbs or that he had been placed in a sanitarium.

Hollywood, of course, had always been a commercial enterprise: Dean's popularity was not lost on the moguls who had built the industry. Jack Warner admitted: "That kid Dean...gave us a lot of trouble, but it was worth it. He was surrounded with stars in Giant, but we believe he was twenty-five percent responsible for the success of the picture." (Cecil Beaton, Cecil Beaton's Fair Lady, New York, Holt, 1964) Aided by studio press releases, fan magazines printed stories with titles like, You Can Make Jimmy Dean Live Forever and The Boy Who Refuses to Die. Not everyone, however, was enthusiastic about Dean. Herbert Mitgang, of The New York Times, dismissed him as "an honor graduate of the black leather jacket and motorcycle school of acting and living it up." And director Elia Kazan, Dean's mentor, claimed: "Every boy goes through a period when he's seventeen or so when he hates his father, hates authority, can't live within the rules. . . It's a classic case. Dean just never got out of it." Dean's recklessness and commitment to having lived his life to the fullest had its appeal as well.

"All adolescents," wrote Martin Mayer in Esquire, "want to rope steers...and sculpt busts of famous novelists and drive a custom sports car and write poetry and be a great Hollywood star. Dean did it.... In a way, the kids feel he did it all for them." He was, moreover, the one hero who would never sell out. He would never have a chance to. A few of Dean's close friends refused to take part in the hysteria--or cash in on the enterprise. Dennis Stock, a young photographer, remembers being invited to dinner by another photographer, Sanford Roth, after Dean's death. Roth had been the still photographer on Giant and had shot numerous poses of Jimmy both on and off the set. When Stock arrived, he assumed that he and the Roths would spend a quiet evening reminiscing about their gifted friend. But when he realized the Roths had invited a newspaper reporter who was doing a story on Dean, Stock got up and left. "It was a publicity setup," he recalled with disdain. In a sense, however, Dean had almost invited the reaction that followed his death. "He was a boy with a wonderful sense of the theater," director George Stevens said.

As a farmboy, in high school, Jimmy had been a show-off; in Hollywood, he cultivated his offbeat image with the press. After making East of Eden, Dean excused his obnoxious public behavior by telling an interviewer, "I can't divert into being a human being when I've been playing a hero, like Cal, who's essentially demonic." On another occasion, he explained: "A neurotic person has the necessity to express himself and my neuroticism manifests itself in the dramatic..." He was-cool; the perfect quote was always on his lips. Humphrey Bogart, who also knew a thing or two about image making, once said: "Dean died at just the right time. He left behind a legend. If he had lived, he'd never have been able to live up to his publicity." (Richard Gehman, Bogart, New York, Gold Medal Books, 1965) A Rebel for all seasons. But Dean did not live and in death became transformed into a myth: Even today, visitors come from all over to visit his grave in Fairmount, Indiana, the small farming community where Dean grew up.

In one recent year, there were over six thousand visitors, some from as far away as Argentina and Australia. Dean's handsome, brooding face adorns posters and T-shirts. A licensing company, run by lawyers, markets James Dean calendars, postcards, and ashtrays around the world. Over the years, an impressive list of actors and performers have claimed to have been influenced by him: Bob Dylan, Al Pacino, Martin Sheen, Michael Parks, the late Jim Morrison, poet and lead singer for the Doors, who lived fast and died hard, just like one of his heroes, James Dean. Dean's life has been the subject of novels, plays, even a song by the Beach Boys entitled, A Young Man Is Gone. But not every writer has been adoring. In 1993, George Will, the respected conservative columnist, blamed Dean and his film personality for the youthful unrest that convulsed the country in the 1960s. Will wrote: "In Rebel Dean played himself--a mumbling, arrested-development adolescent-to perfection.

Feeling mightily sorry for himself as a victim (of insensitive parents), his character prefigured the whiny, alienated, nobody-understands-me pouting that the self-absorbed youth of the sixties considered a political stance." But Dean was a many-sided figure; the sullen young man was only one facet of his personality. He was creative, intellectually curious, and ambitious, as well as manipulative and extremely selfish. Many actors who actually worked with him disliked him--and rued the experience. One actor who worked with Dean on TV recalled decades later that Jimmy had been vulgar, self-congratulatory, and rude. "His movements on stage were far removed from the carefully rehearsed planned positions," the actor, Vaughn Taylor, recalled. This created "havoc with the other actors' performances and for the director. The result was pandemonium for everyone except Mr. Dean and his sick ego." This comment is all too typical and an ironic epitaph for an actors' icon. Moreover, not all of Dean's friends found him loyal. After Jimmy had achieved success, a struggling young photographer to whom Dean had reason to be grateful asked him to go halves on a used camera. Dean refused.

"I can get all the new equipment I want," he said callously. Alas, this was not the only friend Jimmy left behind after his rapid rise to fame. In the years since Dean's death, there has been much speculation about his rumored bisexuality. In fact, women were strongly attracted to him, and he engaged in numerous affairs. At one point, in New York, he was simultaneously having affairs with a wealthy debutante and a beautiful high school girl. the legend--forever A few Dean friends continue to deny his homosexuality, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary. After reading a draft of this manuscript, actor Martin Landau refused to be interviewed, saying: "This guy was not gay." Dennis Hopper has made the same claim. Only one of Dean's homosexual relationships is dealt with in this book--and that in his early days in Hollywood and New York with a director named Rogers Brackett. Brackett was a well-connected figure in Hollywood; the son of a Hollywood pioneer, he knew everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Henry Miller.

He got Dean small parts in three Hollywood movies and later helped him land his first starring role on Broadway in See the Jaguar which was produced by Lem Ayers, a member of the smart gay circle that swirled around Brackett. After Dean's death, Rogers regularly refused press interviews about him and turned down biographers' requests. His own attainments were considerable: a witty, cultivated man, he had directed stage plays and had written lyrics for a popular Alec Wilder song. Brackett had no desire to be regarded as an appendage to his famous protï¿½gï¿½. In his wry way, Rogers would say that he "had other fish to fry." Toward the end of his own life, however, when he was stricken with cancer, Rogers granted me the only interviews he ever gave on Dean. He was tired of the "half-truths" that had been published and wanted "to set the record straight." This book draws on those interviews and the letters he wrote me; many of the items are published here for the first time, since Rogers requested that they be withheld until after his death.

As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of Dean's death, however, neither his sexuality--nor the quirks in his personality-make much difference to his ever-growing legion of fans: Bikers and mall rats, poets and rockers revere him as much today as teenagers did a generation ago. To them, he is what he is: a rebel for all seasons. Ultimately, it seems, as long as there are young people, so long as there are boundaries, Dean will live-and the legend will endure. (The James Dean Story was originally published in paperback in 1975 and was reissued in hardback in 1995. This introduction was written for the new edition. Ron can be reached at amlegends@aol.com .) 7 Facts About James Dean: Dirty Habits, Magical Powers & More - Biography.com History & Culture 7 Facts About James Dean: Dirty Habits, Magical Powers & More Today in 1955, 24-year-old James Dean died in a car crash on a California highway, but almost six decades later he remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring and enigmatic icons. Here are 7 revealing facts about the man behind the sex symbol.

Avatar: Social count: 887 Today in 1955, 24-year-old James Dean died in a car crash on a California highway, but almost six decades later he remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring and enigmatic icons. Here are 7 revealing facts about the man behind the sex symbol. 887 0 It’s almost 60 years after his tragic death and still Hollywood is looking for “the next James Dean .” The young actor made only three movies in his career – East of Eden (1955) where he played the bad boy brother in the “Cain and Abel” retelling, his signature role as an angst-fueled teen in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956) where he stepped into the cowboy boots of a nonconformist ranch hand. All of his movies became Hollywood classics, but he only saw one, East of Eden, completed. Just hours before his crash, James Dean takes a cigarette break at a gas station next to his beloved silver Porsche 550 Spyder that he named Little Bastard.

(Photo: Bettmann/ Getty Images ) He was only 24 years old on September 30, 1955, when he was driving down Route 466 in his Porsche 550 Spyder and a car collided with his, killing him almost instantly. The young star's life and career was cut short, but his premature death contributed to the legend he would become. Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released posthumously, and Dean came to epitomize the sensitive, troubled rebel who fans still connect with today. Who was the man behind the brooding Hollywood sex symbol? Here are 7 revealing facts that might give you a clue. 1. He Had Daddy Issues James Byron Dean was born in Marion, Indiana on February 8,1931. Dean's father Winton left farming to become a dentist and moved the family to Santa Monica, California. But when Dean’s mother died from cervical cancer when he was 9, the family broke apart. His father sent him back to Indiana to live on his aunt and uncle’s Quaker farm, and this was the beginning of an estrangement between father and son that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. 2.

He Had Some Dirty Habits He was the symbol of sexy cool onscreen, but off camera the 5’8”, 135-pound star had some quirky and dirty (as in unwashed) habits. Dean supposedly didn’t care much about his public appearance and went for the disheveled look. At one formal luncheon, he showed up barefoot and in filthy jeans and was known to appear at rehearsals in pants held together with safety pins. He was also know for having pretty extreme mood swings, according to friends, who said he also had the habit of calling or visiting them late at night. “He’d be up one minute, down the next. He was uncomfortable in his own skin,” one of them said. James Dean - Mini Biography (TV-PG; 2:59) James Dean made his film debut in "East of Eden," but it was his next film, "Rebel Without a Cause" that made him an icon of his generation. He died in a car accident at the age of 24 and soon became an enduring Hollywood legend. 3. He Looked Up to Brando Dean respected another brooding actor of the day, Marlon Brando .

While Dean was just emerging in Hollywood, the slightly older Brando had major success as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), his iconic role as a motorcycle gang leader in The Wild One (1953), and he won an Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954). Dean attempted to call Brando and see him socially, but Brando rebuffed his attempts at bro-ship. “I gave him the name of a [psycho]-analyst, and he went. At least his work improved,” Brando said. 4. He Wanted to Be Billy the Kid In his short career, Dean played fictional non-conformists who played by their own rules, but if he had lived he may have taken on the role of a real-life outlaw. He read and re-read the book The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid and frequently spoke of wanting to portray the Wild West gunslinger in a film. 5. He Confused Ronald Reagan Before he made it in the movies, Dean worked a lot in live television.

A fan of improvising, he went off script on one show and threw a few ad-libs at one of his co-stars, actor and future president Ronald Reagan , who was totally confused by Dean's acting method. Reagan wasn’t the only one who disliked Dean’s spontaneity. "Just make him say the lines as they’re written,” one actor said once. James Dean - Rebel Without a Cause (TV-14; 1:13) Watch a short video about James Dean and learn how this popular actor met his untimely end. 6. The Sexuality of the Sex Symbol Although Dean was briefly engaged to actress Pier Angeli, his sexuality has been a matter of debate. A number of biographers doubt his relationship with Angeli was a physical one. Some biographers believe he was bisexual; others characterize him as a homosexual who had one or two brief affairs with women. It was rumored that his first sexual experience occurred as a teenager when a local minister seduced him. 7. He Had Magical Powers (Sort of) When he wasn’t acting or racing cars, Dean liked to practice magic tricks.

A smoker, who was often photographed with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Dean put a magical spin on his tobacco habit: he would put an unlit cigarette and a flaming match into his mouth and then pull out a burning cigarette. Another reason why Dean was smoking hot. Tags James Dean Biography Photos Acting Quotes Racing Fast Facts Some of the most famous quotes were first uttered by James Dean. Whether they were movie lines or his own personal thoughts, they came to define him as a legend. Quotes from fellow friends, family and actors are proof that he not only knew how to captivate an audience, but also mesmerized whomever he came into contact with. Quotes by James Dean "Only the gentle are ever really strong." "If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, . if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man." "To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication. Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have. Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder.

I want to be both before I'm done." "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." "Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me. I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed." "How can you measure acting in inches?!?" (when told he was too short to be an actor) James Dean's actual height was 5'8" "Trust and belief are two prime considerations. You must not allow yourself to be opinionated. You must say, 'Wait. Let me see.' And above all, you must be honest with yourself." — to Hedda Hopper "There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning. A fish that is in the water has no choice that he is. Genius would have it that we swim in sand. We are fish and we drown." "An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer.

In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet. In the short span of his lifetime, an actor must learn all there is to know, experience all there is to experience, or approach that state as closely as possible. He must be superhuman in his efforts to store away in the core of his subconscious everything that he might be called upon to use in the expression of his art." "The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results." "When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that. So the director's task is just that - to direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes over. And he must be allowed the space, the freedom to express himself in the role. Without that space, an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with a chest-full of push-buttons." "It was an accident, although I've been involved in some kind of theatrical function or other since I was a child - in school, music, athletics. To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

To my way of thinking, an actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle." "Since I'm only 24 years old, guess I have as good an insight into this rising generation as any other young man my age. And I've discovered that most young men do not stand like ramrods or talk like Demosthenes. Therefore, when I do play a youth, such as in Warner Bros. Rebel Without A Cause, I try to imitate life. The picture deals with the problems of modern youth. It is the romanticized conception of the juvenile that causes much of our trouble with misguided youth nowadays. I think the one thing this picture shows that's new is the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too. But you can't show some far off idyllic conception of behavior if you want the kids to come and see the picture. You've got to show what it's really like, and try to reach them on their own grounds.

You know, a lot of times an older boy, one of the fellows the young ones idolize, can go back to the high school kids and tell them, "Look what happened to me! Why be a punk and get in trouble with the law?Why do these senseless things just for a thrill?" I hope "Rebel Without A Cause" will do something like that. I hope it will remind them that other people have feelings. Perhaps they will say, "What do we need all that for?"If a picture is psychologically motivated, if there is truth in the relationship in it, then I think that picture will do good. I firmly believe Rebel Without A Cause is such a picture." — from an interview at a preview of Rebel Without A Cause Quotes About James Dean "He was very afraid of being hurt. He was afraid of opening up in case it was turned around and used against him." — Elizabeth Taylor "[Dean's] death caused a loss in the movie world that our industry could ill afford. Had he lived long enough, I feel he would have made some incredible films. He had sensitivity and a capacity to express emotion." — Gary Cooper "I didn't know what to do.

How do you tell an eight-year-old boy his mother's going to die? I tried. In my own stumbling way I tried to prepare Jim for it. Nowadays, he lives in a world we don't understand too well, the actor's world. We don't see too much of him. But he's a good boy, my Jim. A good boy, and I"m very proud of him. Not easy to understand, no sir. He's not easy to understand. But he's all man, and he'll make his mark. Mind you, my boy will make his mark." — Winton Dean in Modern Screen, August 1955 " All of us were touched by Jimmy, and he was touched by greatness." — Natalie Wood "He could look in a delicatessen window and suddenly start waving at a bowl of prunes, like they were alive. He was childish in a charming way." — Christine White "He had the greatest power of concentration I have ever encountered.

He prepared himself so well in advance for any scene he was playing, that the lines were not simply something he had memorized -- they were actually a very real part of him." — Jim Backus "Jim Dean and Elvis were the spokesmen for an entire generation. When I was in acting school in New York, years ago, there was a saying that if Marlon Brando changed the way people acted, then James Dean changed the way people lived. He was the greatest actor who ever lived. He was simply a genius." — Martin Sheen "He would be bothered when someone would say he was mean and disrespectful. Because actually, he wasn't. They took silence to mean he cared little or nothing for them. They didn't have the insight, or didn't care to exercise the insight, in knowing that he was a shy boy that just didn't know how to approach them. Instead of making an attempt to approach him, they just, well, they just wrote him off." — Lew Bracker "He didn't show you very much. He'd challenge you to find him. Then when you'd found him, he'd still make you guess. It was an endless game with him. The thing people missed about Jimmy was his mischievousness.

He was the most constantly mischievous person I think I've ever met. Full of tricks, full of magic, full of outrageousness." — Stuart Stern "Every time I go to Europe, I remember that James Dean never saw Europe, but yet I see his face everywhere. There's James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe - windows of the Champs Elysees, discos in the south of Spain, restaurants in Sweden, t-shirts in Moscow. My life was confused and disoriented for years by his passing. My sense of destiny destroyed - the great films he would have directed, the great performances he would have given, the great humanitarian he would have become, and yet, he's the greatest actor and star I have ever known." — Dennis Hopper "I'm obsessed. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I'm hoping to keep his memory going. It's a tribute." — David Loehr (Dean Archivist, The James Dean Gallery, Fairmount, Indiana) "When I worked with him on TV, I found him to be an intelligent young actor who seemed to live only for his work.

He was completely dedicated, and although a shy person, he could hold a good conversation on many wide-ranging subjects." — Ronald Reagan A few weeks before the group recorded its first hit record, "LOVE ME DO," in 1962, fifth member Stuart Sutcliffe died at the age of 21. Years later, John Lennon is quoted as saying: "[Stuart Sutcliffe] was really our leader, and he was really into the James Dean thing. He idolized him. Stuart died young before we made the big time, but I suppose you could say that without Jimmy Dean, The Beatles would have never existed." "When he was interested and participating, his energy was powerful. He had the greatest of intellectual qualities - curiosity about everything." — Roy Schatt "He said, "We both have to get married and have families. That's what we both want; that's what we both need. He never talked to me like a man that was worried about cutting it [life] short or having it cut short." — Lew Bracker "I liken it to a kind of star or comet that fell through the sky and everybody still talks about it.

They say, 'Ah, remember the night when you saw that shooting star?" — Julie Harris "He seemed to capture that moment of youth, that moment where we're all desperately seeking to find ourselves." — Dennis Hopper "[James Dean] was spectacularly talented, handsome in a fragile sort of way and absolutely outrageous. He was an original. Impish, compelling, magnetic, utterly winning one moment, obnoxious the next. Definitely gifted." — Edna Ferber author of best-selling novel "Giant" from her autobiography "A Kind of Magic" "Sometimes we'd just sit and talk, or we'd listen to music for a couple of hours at a time without saying a word. Sometimes he'd get up and dance. He used to do modern, interpretive things. Jimmy had a wonderful pantomimic gift - I couldn't compare him to anyone else.

He had a quality and style all his own." — Jane Withers "In Texas, one disgustingly hot night during the filming of Giant, he and I ate a full jar of peanut butter, a box of crackers and six Milky Ways, and drank twelve Coca-Cola's!" — Mercedes McCambridge (Luz Benedict) from her autobiography, "The Quality of Mercy" "In front of the camera, he had an instinct that was nearly uncanny. I don't recall ever working with anyone who had such a gift. I recall one scene, where he was in a shadow, and had to lift his head to the light. We explained how it should go and he played it exactly right, to the half inch, the first time. He just seemed to know how it should be, without rehearsal or anything." — William C. Mellor, Cinematographer "Jamie and I were like brother and sister. He told me in fact he thought of me as a sister. Our relationship was strictly platonic and spiritual." — Eartha Kitt "Jimmy was a very close and good friend of mine.

I have fond memories of Jim, the days we spent together in New York City as young actors — walking the streets and talking about the theater and wondering about our next job, reading books and discussing them; seeing plays, seeing films; working in acting workshops and being serious young fellows about the thing we loved most, which was acting in the theater and films." — Martin Landau "Jim had a year away from Warner Brothers. We had planned to use that time to get our company started. We would have done both feature pictures and a television series, which would have allowed Jim to break in as a director. I think he would have been a great director." — Nicholas Ray "To the ranchers and the people around there, he was just as nice as could be. Dean came to me and said, 'Bob, I want to be a Texan twenty-four hours a day. I'd like for you to work with me.

I'll even pay you out of my pocket.' So I got him some clothes and boots and he starts talking like a Texan every day." — Bob Hinkle "We took a walk that first day, and there was a building going up near Sixth Avenue, and we virtually became sidewalk superintendents by barking orders to people. And we proceeded to go over to Rockefeller Center where there was a young girl skating, and we applauded her and she did her command performance. Our minds, our ability to fantasize, and our ability to communicate was kind of an instant thing. I had an amazingly instant rapport with him, and as a result we became friends immediately. He used to come out to my house, my parents' house in Queens, and my little nephews adored him. [We had] Christmases and Thanksgivings [together]. We were sort of a surrogate family." — Martin Landau On their first meeting "He turned out to be a fascinating and intelligent young man who talked fluently about artists in music.

And he was surprisingly knowledgeable about such recondite composers as Schönberg and Bartók." — Oscar Levant "While we were making Giant, I think we all knew that young Jimmy Dean was giving a performance that not even the extreme adjectives of Hollywood could adequately sum up. It's not often a unit gets a feeling like that." — William C. Mellor "What I remember most about him was the little boy quality shining forth at you from behind those thick glasses of his, tearing at your heart. He had that extreme and touching idealism of youth which made you wish that he would never have to be disillusioned. Now he won't be." — Louella Parsons "Jimmy Dean loved the feel of Indiana soil under his feet and I think that was the source of much of his strength." — Adeline Nall "It wasn't so much a matter of whom I was acting with, it was whom I was watching. Marlon Brando, Maureen Stapleton, Geraldine Page, Jimmy Dean . a pretty hotshot group." — Paul Newman on his apprenticeship at the Actors Studio "Actually, the person I related to was James Dean. I grew up with the Dean thing.

Rebel Without A Cause had a very powerful effect on me." — Al Pacino "The only time I ever worked with James Dean was in a 1953 off-Broadway production called The Scarecrow. He played the Scarecrow's reflection in the mirror. He was an unknown then but he was jolly good in every way. I knew then that he was born to become an actor." — Patricia Neal "Jimmy was not only an internal actor, but an expressionist, which came partly from his studying dance. He would physicalize actions, such as the way he lifted himself up on the windmill in Giant, or goose-stepped measuring off the land, or his sleight-of-hand gesture as Jett Rink. He had the amazing capacity to pick up and learn a new trick almost immediately, tossing a rope and making a knot, a card trick from a magician, coin tricks, racing a car..." — Dennis Hopper "I have never seen an actor as dedicated, with the extreme concentration and exceptional imagination as James Dean.

He could take the written imaginary circumstance and make it his own by improvising - lying on the ground in a fetal position playing with a wound-up toy monkey beating its cymbals, giggling while being searched in the police station because it tickled, standing up in a drunken daze making the sound of sirens with his arms outstretched, hitting his fists into the sergeant's desk, jumping off a diving board into a swimming pool with no water, or doing the voice of Mr. Magoo throughout the movie, which was the voice of Jim Backus, his father in Rebel - things that were not written on the page, things that were invented by the actor." — Dennis Hopper

Question: What year did movie legend James Dean die?
Answer: 1955